Member Avatar for duka

Hello
I have backed up some files and my e mails to an external drive. I have re installed xp on my computer. I backed up my emails with a program called email saver xe. Problem is that when i try to access the files on my external driive i am getting a message of access denied. Any ideas much appreciated.
Thanks

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Good progress: was able to regain ownership for most items, so the one remaining file is probably not a simple NTFS ACL problem. 's suggestion to copy the file to the freshly installed system is still a good first diagnostic step because it separates disk/permission problems from archive or encryption problems.

Common causes and quick checks:

  • Encrypted at the file level (EFS). Check the file Properties -> Advanced to see if "Encrypt contents to secure data" is set. EFS ties encryption to the original user certificate/private key; without that private key a reinstall will leave the file unreadable. If a certificate (.pfx) was exported from the old install it can be imported into the current store (certmgr.msc) and then the file will decrypt.
  • Proprietary backup/container format. Many mail-backup tools create one large container that must be opened with the original program (or its restore function) and sometimes a password. Installing that program on the current machine and using its restore/import is the right route.
  • Disk corruption or hardware errors. Run a volume check on the external drive (for example chkdsk X: /f /r where X is the drive letter) and retry copying.
  • Remaining ACL/lock problems. Use the Security tab -> Advanced -> Owner to force owner to Administrators and then give Administrators Full Control. Booting a rescue environment (Windows PE or a Linux live CD) can also show whether the raw file contents are readable (note: Linux ignores NTFS ACLs but cannot decrypt EFS files).

Practical workflow to follow:

  1. Try copying the file to a local NTFS volume (as @xcellpro6 suggested).
  2. If copy fails, run chkdsk and reattempt.
  3. If copy succeeds but you cannot open the archive, identify the file extension and use the original backup tool or a generic extractor (7-Zip) to inspect it.
  4. If the file is EFS-encrypted, locate any exported certificate from the old install and import it before attempting decryption.

Caution: if the file really is EFS-encrypted and the original private key/certificate was not exported before the reinstall, there is effectively no practical way to recover the plaintext. Detecting encryption early will save time chasing other causes.

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Member Avatar for xcellpro6

Hi

try to copy and paste the files to your reformatted xp drive and see if you can open them.

Darren

Member Avatar for duka

Thanks for the reply. I have sorted out my files by taking ownership, but the only file i am still having a problem with is my backed up e mails in the program called "email saver xe". Still getting access denied. the file size is 750mb so data is in there but i just cant access it. Totally stumped

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